Akane

A simple Oriental blending/RYO that is light on flavor and I was really trying to capture the feel of smoke. I’ve been searching for a good ADV to alternate with my Brigade 2506 just to have a little more variety. In the last year or so I’ve experimented with more complex and flavorful recipes, but they always end up overwhelming my senses after about 30 ml, and I have to put them away for a few weeks. I thought I’d try to go a different route- nothing too robust or complex, and as smoky as I can make it so it doesn’t get old, and it doesn’t stop satisfying.

INW Oriental- it’s a light and slightly sweet oriental tobacco. Nothing flashy going on. Simple and straight forward.

FA Ozone- it’s taken me a while to get this in a mix and enjoy it. I really liked the single flavor test I did, but it is just so strong that it overwhelms things easily. I think .25% is probably the max you’ll get away with without turning it in to an Ozone recipe. Helps with the texture of “smoky” here, and also gives a little bit of boost to the leafy taste of the Absolute and Oriental.

DNB- it’s ashy. You know that already. I always think of it like sweetener or cooling agents. If what I have in the recipe is too much for you, adjust to your own taste and it won’t change the recipe much.

Garuda- Always gotta have me a Tobacco Absolute on board, and for this one I went with Garuda. It’s light and leafy, and really helps complete the tobacco taste that the Oriental lacks.

INW Turkish- it’s taken me a while to get past this just tasting like cream soda. I did a flavor review for it on reddit, and someone commented saying that they got something like a musty, old cigarette, so I tried to taste that when I tested it again. I think I can just maaaaybe get that. I don’t think I get it enough to ever use it as a base tobacco, but I tried to get clever with it here. Before I added this, it just felt like something was missing. I needed a tickle in the nose and some volume in the throat on the exhale. A little splash of INW Turkish seems to be helping a bit with that without making the whole thing taste like cream soda (which could totally be some weird thing that only I pick up on, so don’t let me scare you away from trying it.)